2013年硕士研究生入学考试英语二真题

Section I  Use of English

Directions: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)

Given the advantage of electronic money, you might think that we should move quickly to the cashless society in which all payments are made electronically. _1 However , a true cashless society is probably not around the corner. Indeed, predictions have been 2around_ for two decades but have not yet come to fruition.

For example, Business Week predicted in 1975 that electronic means of payment “would soon revolutionize the very 3.concept of money itself,” only to 4.reverse itself several years later. Why has the movement to a cashless society been so 5.slow in coming?

Although e-money might be more convenient and may be more efficient than a payments system based on paper, several factors work 6.against the disappearance of the paper system. First, it is very 7.expensive to set up the computer, card reader, and telecommunications networks necessary to make electronic money the 8.dominant form of payment.

Second, electronic means of payment 14.raise security and privacy concerns. We often hear media reports that an unauthorized hacker has been able to access a computer database and to alter information 15.stored there.

Because this is not an 16.uncommon occurrence, unscrupulous persons might be able to access bank accounts in electronic payments systems and 17.steal funds by moving them from someone else’s accounts into their own. The 18.prevention of this type of fraud is no easy task, and a whole new field of computer science has developed to 19.cope with security issues. A further concern is that the use of electronic means of payment leaves an electronic 20.trail that contains a large amount of personal data on buying habits.

1. [A] However [B] Moreover [C] Therefore [D] Otherwise

2. [A] off [B] back [C] over [D] around

3. [A] power [B] concept [C] history [D] role

4. [A] reward [B] resist [C] resume [D] reverse

5. [A] silent [B] sudden [C] slow [D] steady

6. [A] for [B] against [C]with [D] on

7. [A] imaginative [B] expensive [C] sensitive [D] productive

8. [A] similar [B] original  [C] temporary [D] dominant

9. [A] collect [B] provide [C] copy [D] print

10. [A] give up [B] take over [C] bring back [D] pass down

11. [A] before [B] after [C] since [D] when

12. [A] kept [B] borrowed [C] released [D] withdrawn

13. [A] Unless [B] Until [C] Because [D] Though

14. [A] hide [B] express [C] raise [D]ease

15. [A] analyzed [B] shared [C] stored [D] displayed

16. [A] unsafe [B] unnatural [C] uncommon [D] unclear

17. [A] steal [B] choose [C] benefit [D] return

18. [A] consideration [B] prevention [C] manipulation [D] justification

19. [A] cope with [B] fight against [C] adapt to [D] call for

20. [A] chunk [B] chip [C] path [D] trail

Section II  Reading Comprehension

Part A

Directions:Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)

Text 1

In an essay, entitled “Making It in America,” in the latest issue of The Atlantic, the author Adam Davidson relates a joke from cotton country about just how much a modern textile mill has been automated: The average mill has only two employees today, “a man and a dog. The man is there to feed the dog, and the dog is there to keep the man away from the machines.”

Davidson’s article is one of a number of pieces that have recently appeared making the point that the reason we have such stubbornly high unemployment and sagging middle-class incomes today is largely because of the big drop in demand because of the Great Recession, but it is also because of the quantum advances in both globalization and the information technology revolution, which are more rapidly than ever replacing labor with machines or foreign workers.

In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over. Being average just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius. Therefore, everyone needs to find their extra — their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment. Average is over.

Yes, new technology has been eating jobs forever, and always will. As they say, if horses could have voted, there never would have been cars. But there’s been an acceleration. As Davidson notes, “In the 10 years ending in 2009, [U.S.] factories shed workers so fast that they erased almost all the gains of the previous 70 years; roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs — about 6 million in total — disappeared.”

And you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Last April, Annie Lowrey of Slate wrote about a start-up called “E la Carte” that is out to shrink the need for waiters and waitresses: The company “has produced a kind of souped-up iPad that lets you order and pay right at your table. The brainchild of a bunch of M.I.T. engineers, the nifty invention, known as the Presto, might be found at a restaurant near you soon. ... You select what you want to eat and add items to a cart. Depending on the restaurant’s preferences, the console could show you nutritional information, ingredients lists and photographs. You can make special requests, like ‘dressing on the side’ or ‘quintuple bacon.’ When you’re done, the order zings over to the kitchen, and the Presto tells you how long it will take for your items to come out. ... Bored with your companions? Play games on the machine. When you’re through with your meal, you pay on the console, splitting the bill item by item if you wish and paying however you want. And you can have your receipt e-mailed to you. ... Each console goes for $100 per month. If a restaurant serves meals eight hours a day, seven days a week, it works out to 42 cents per hour per table — making the Presto cheaper than even the very cheapest waiter.”

What the iPad won’t do in an above average way a Chinese worker will. Consider this paragraph from Sunday’s terrific article in The Times by Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher about why Apple does so much of its manufacturing in China: “Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly-line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the [Chinese] plant near midnight. A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day. ‘The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,’ the executive said. ‘There’s no American plant that can match that.’ ”

And automation is not just coming to manufacturing, explains Curtis Carlson, the chief executive of SRI International, a Silicon Valley idea lab that invented the Apple iPhone program known as Siri, the digital personal assistant. “Siri is the beginning of a huge transformation in how we interact with banks, insurance companies, retail stores, health care providers, information retrieval services and product services.”

There will always be change — new jobs, new products, new services. But the one thing we know for sure is that with each advance in globalization and the I.T. revolution, the best jobs will require workers to have more and better education to make themselves above average. Here are the latest unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for Americans over 25 years old: those with less than a high school degree, 13.8 percent; those with a high school degree and no college, 8.7 percent; those with some college or associate degree, 7.7 percent; and those with bachelor’s degree or higher, 4.1 percent.

In a world where average is officially over, there are many things we need to do to buttress employment, but nothing would be more important than passing some kind of G.I. Bill for the 21st century that ensures that every American has access to post-high school education.

21. The joke in Paragraph 1 is used to illustrate_______

[A] the impact of technological advances

[B] the alleviation of job pressure

[C] the shrinkage of textile mills

[D] the decline of middle-class incomes

22. According to Paragraph 3, to be a successful employee, one has to______

[A] work on cheap software

[B] ask for a moderate salary

[C] adopt an average lifestyle

[D] contribute something unique

23. The quotation in Paragraph 4 explains that ______

[A] gains of technology have been erased

[B] job opportunities are disappearing at a high speed

[C] factories are making much less money than before

[D] new jobs and services have been offered

24. According to the author, to reduce unemployment, the most important is_____

[A] to accelerate the I.T. revolution

[B] to ensure more education for people

[C] ro advance economic globalization

[D] to pass more bills in the 21st century

25. Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for the text?

[A] New Law Takes Effect

[B] Technology Goes Cheap

[C] Average Is Over

[D] Recession Is Bad